Reclaiming My Freedom in HubPages

Updated on November 12, 2012

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Rhetorical questions for the ego

How many things have you done in your life without seeking approval or validation or reward? How many things have you done for their own sake without seeking any reward except the sense of satisfaction each gave you?

These are of course rhetorical questions posed to direct the mind of the reader to a place it rarely ventures. For the mind to entertain these questions would mean introspection and that does not serve the ego.

There is a good reason for everything that we do

Have you ever done anything for its own sake without seeking approval or validation from your external world? Yes, I ask again and the second time I ask the question some of you may be experiencing uncomfortable or even irritating feelings.

I put it to you that we all do things for reward of one type or another. We want to feel good so we do things to make others feel good in the hope that they will reciprocate. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. Some people do this openly and others do so covertly. Either way most of the things we do are self serving.

Reasons to write

Let me take an example from right here in HubPages.

Why do you write hubs?

Is it to better the world because you see the world as in a mess and needing your wisdom to right it?

Do you write to tell the world how clever and wonderful you are?

Perhaps you write to tell the world how miserable and pitiable you are.

Could you be using your articles to express your emotions?

It could be that you feel nobody listens to you so HubPages provides you with a captive audience that regularly tells you that you are heard.

Maybe you are just interested in making some money and will write whatever you have to to make it.

There are many reasons why a person might write hubs and I don't claim to have listed them all here. One thing for certain, is that you definitely have a good reason for writing. Something that you may not be aware of is, exactly what your real reason for writing is.

Motives questioned

I read a very interesting hub recently called Am I A Narcissist? by a hubber I have a lot of respect for called RealHousewife and it is that hub that has made me think about my own motives for writing.

There is no doubt that I get a lot of satisfaction from writing but it takes time and this willingness on my part to invest this kind of time into satisfying an unconscious need I think requires scrutiny. I have gotten to enjoy writing so much that I actually look forward to doing it more than a lot of other things I used to do or do less of as a result of my new found love.

I am sure there is a part of me that would love to be perceived as clever and inspiring and I am sure that a lot of what I write is geared toward soliciting these perceptions.

Any way RealHousewife got me thinking and is probably the inspiration for me writing this hub in the first place.

Not money driven

I am certainly not writing to make money. I do have a Google Adsense account and I do from time to time recommend books and videos but that is definitely not what attracts me to writing in HubPages. My wife and I make a good living from our own business and though I did start in HubPages with a view to directing people to our website that too is not a primary driving force for me to write.

My conclusions

I discussed this very topic with RealHousewife because it is too difficult to do this kind of soul searching on your own and because I know she is honest and will definitely never pull her punches. After our discussion and a lot of introspection I eventually came to the following conclusion:

HubPages is really a fantastic tool to enable its master to express himself creatively. The problem with any tool is that we tend to give the tool power over us because that is the nature of mind. Our own mind is a tool that we rarely are able to control so why would we imagine that we would behave any differently with any other tool created by mind?

Why let the dog take the master for the walk?

There are ways to regain our own power and take back control over a tool that seeks to control us and that is to remember and keep focus on the target which is the purpose you deliberately set for the tool.

If you find yourself using the tool for any other purpose then you are not in control and you are being subconsciously controlled by the tool you seek to use.

Comment boxes you in

In my case writing is a means of creative self expression and the distraction comes when I seek approval or validation for what I write. In order to rectify that I have decided to remove the comment box at the bottom of any further hubs I write.

If I am writing to express myself then there is no need to solicit your praise, or criticism.

If you wish me to clarify a point or discuss what I have written you are free to do so and HubPages provides a way for you to do that by means of e-mail.

The point is that I am not seeking a following and you become free from the unwritten obligations that seem to go with being a follower.

Reclaiming freedom

By freeing people like this it also makes sense to free myself of the unwritten etiquette of attaching myself to certain people so I become free to spontaneously read whatever I want and whenever I want and the operative word here is free.

The comment box does exactly that, it boxes you in and keeps you a slave to something designed to be a tool.

When we realise that it is mind that assigns meaning to everyone and everything in this world we are then in a position to decide the meaning we wish to assign rather than having meanings imposed on us.

Freedom day!

From today I have decided to reclaim my power to choose now and take back my freedom.

So when you see no comment boxes at the bottom of my hubs from now on you will know that this is my way of freeing you from the obligation of having to make comments.

And just because you don't see comments from me in all your comment boxes and you notice I no longer follow you doesn't mean I am not continuing to read and enjoy your hubs. It just means that I don't need to tell you and you don't need me to tell you either!

It will also be interesting to see how my Hub Score, which is 89 as of today, will be affected by what I do from today. Not that I ever cared about that any way but some of you may be.

Listen to the words of freedom

Mel Gibson says it all so much better in his freedom speech as William Wallace in Braveheart. If this speech doesn't move you I don't know what ever will.

Discussion and Comments

Life is dynamic and always changing. I tend to flow with life and what seems right for me one day is not always right for me the following day. One thing is certain is that I don't accept things without questioning.

I feel that in this age of advanced technology we have come to take a lot for granted and in some cases we are not even aware of the freedom we give away so cheaply.

I feel that HubPages is an amazing facility but like any tool we need to question how we as a community use it in order to benefit us and enhance our lives.

To do this I feel that it is necessary to experiment in order to actually see how different things actually affect us. Simply talking about it doesn't give real results.

I would ask that you refrain form leaving a comment and simply use the voting tabs if you are not going to challenge what I say here and offer your your own alternatives to what I propose.

If you comment just to stroke my ego in order to entice me to follow you then you are barking up the wrong tree here. I would love to hear your honest opinions and to hear if this hub has got you thinking about how we could develop a more efficient way to use HubPages rather than seeing it as something set in stone and run by parental authority figures whose approval we seek.

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Comments 2 comments

...wow you really opened up the Pandora's box with this one - so intelligent and insightful you are as a writer that I could listen to you for days on end (or read) - and thank you for your enlightenment on this mysterious phenomenon known as Hubland - lol - and as Popeye once said 'I am who I am' and that pretty well sums up Hubpages - we are all individuals just doing our thing - and myself, the epi-man couldn't give a hoot in heck about hub scores, I live on the poverty level and make no money here but I have total artistic freedom (so far) and have met countless (new) friends, fans, followers and esteemed colleagues - like yourself!

p.s. - I am posting this to my Facebook page with a direct link back here so hopefully more people can see this.

theirishobserver. 5 years ago from Ireland

Great Hub....Love the Isle of Man...although I have not been there since 1988.....Irish